Mahler - Das Lied von der Erde - Herreweghe, Ensemble Musique Oblique

 

Release Date: July 11, 2006 Label: Harmonia Mundi Number of discs: 1 Composer: Gustav Mahler  Performer: Philippe Herreweghe, Ensemble Musique Oblique cd info/ buy

Review:

This is the Schoenberg-Riehn chamber - *not* Mahler's original orchestral - version of DLvdE. So for example, a piano replaces much of the original percussion instruments like funereal tam-tams in Der Abschied. Everything in the original is shorn down here and the transparency of the work becomes even more evident. Minimalist, almost anti-thetical to Mahler's "a symphony should be like the world" idea. No matter! - it's brilliantly played by Herreweghe & co., and Remmert and Blochwitz are amongst the best DLvdE singers to my ears. Schoenberg's re-orchestration has brought the orchestra to an intimacy and immediacy that marvelously matches and compliments the voices.

 

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